Global Programs

Past History

MIT Sloan’s international learning ventures began in the 1930s with student camping tours of industrial Europe. The tours included visits to European manufacturing plants. Arrangements were anything but glamorous; students drove from country to country in a converted bus outfitted with sleeping quarters and a makeshift kitchen.

From these humble beginnings, Global Programs is building on a legacy of global engagement. These efforts help shape research, practice, and perspective of business leaders around the world.

An International Legacy at MIT Sloan

1914

MIT faculty and administration establish Course XV, Engineering Administration, at MIT. Over time, Course XV evolves to become the MIT Sloan School of Management.

1931

In the summer of 1931, Erwin Schell, the new head of Course XV, organizes a series of student camping tours of industrial facilities. These tours give students insight into management practices at various U.S. and European manufacturing plants. The tours are an early forerunner of today’s many study tours, treks, and action learning labs.

1950s

MIT Sloan collaborates with the Soviet Union’s State Committee for Science and Technology. MIT Sloan sends student groups to Moscow to visit businesses and meet with their leadership teams. In exchange, executives from the Soviet Union visit MIT Sloan to take classes as visiting Sloan Fellows.

1960

After completing a tour of sub-Saharan Africa, Carroll Wilson, SB ’32, begins teaching his first class at MIT Sloan, called “Government Policy and Business Decisions.” Wilson polls his class to gauge interest working in Africa, and 12 of his 16 students say that they would participate, if given the opportunity. The program becomes a means to “making the concepts taught at MIT more relevant to the needs of developing countries” and also has “the fellows themselves receiving valuable practical experience.”

1961

MIT Sloan collaborates with representatives from the government of West Bengal and Indian industry to help develop the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Calcutta. During the School's formal engagement with the IIM/Calcutta from 1961-1969, nearly 200 Indian students complete long-term study programs, more than 700 Indian managers attend short-term programs, and twenty-five MIT Sloan faculty and two doctoral students visit.

1990

MIT Sloan and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore sign a five-year agreement to collaborate on management education and research. NTU faculty enroll in MIT Sloan programs and the two schools hold joint conferences. With support from MIT Sloan, NTU establishes its business school and a twelve-month Nanyang Fellows Program modeled after the MIT Sloan Fellows program.

1996

The MIT-China Management Education Project is established, with partnerships with Fudan University in Shanghai and Tsinghua University in Beijing. The effort brings Chinese professors to MIT Sloan to work with faculty and take classes so that they can bring new approaches to their own universities.

2000

Global Entrepreneurship Lab (G-Lab) is founded, building on the success of Entrepreneurship Lab (E-Lab) to give students the opportunity to work directly with startups in emerging markets. G-Lab teams go on to work on more than 400 projects in 50 countries around the world.

2004

The Sungkyunkwan University Graduate School of Business in Seoul, South Korea, and MIT Sloan work together to develop a new MBA program. As part of the collaboration, Sungkyunkwan faculty members spend time at MIT Sloan as International Faculty Fellows.

2008

MIT Sloan expands its action learning offerings with the addition of Global Healthcare Delivery Lab, now GlobalHealth Lab, founded to enable students to tackle major healthcare delivery challenges around the world.

2009

MIT Sloan partners with the Sungkyunkwan Graduate School of Business, Tsinghua University, and HEC Paris to establish the Master of Science in Management Studies. The program offers top MBA or master’s degree students from non-U.S. business schools an opportunity to enhance their expertise in a specific management concentration and earn a master’s degree in only two semesters.

2009

MIT Sloan and the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO collaborate to establish Russia's first full-time MBA program, which includes classes for SKOLKOVO MBA students in Cambridge and lectures by MIT Sloan faculty in Moscow.

2010

The MIT Executive MBA program is launched. The 20-month program for mid-career executives features weekend classes and periodic one-week modules on campus along with an international project. The Class of 2014 includes more than 100 executives from around the world.

2012

The MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program is a global executive education initiative designed to help regions accelerate economic growth and job creation through innovation-driven entrepreneurship. The program admits eight to ten partner regions annually, each representing a population of three to 10 million people. Each two-year engagement brings together teams representing universities, government, business, capital, and entrepreneurs from emerging economies.

2013

MIT Sloan expands its presence in Latin America by opening the MIT Sloan Latin America Office in Santiago, Chile, the School’s first office outside the United States.

2015

MIT Sloan announces collaboration with Malaysia’s central bank to found the Asia School of Business in Kuala Lumpur. This is the first time MIT Sloan establishes an MBA program from scratch outside of Cambridge. MIT Sloan Professor Charles Fine serves as the founding president and dean.

2017

MIT REAP joins MIT Sloan OIP.

2018

OIP rebrands to Global Programs.

The Mission

The mission of the MIT Sloan School of Management is to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world and to generate ideas that advance management practice.